So, as we come to the end of the second term of my last year, I’ve been looking back to my time at university, and although I’ve loved every minute of it, if I were to have it again, there are a few things I would have done maybe a little differently to ensure I made the most of my time. And as I like lists, then they here they are:

1) Joined more Societies

At Freshers fair, there are nearly 200 societies all vying for your membership and it’s so easy to sign up to so many things you know you’re never ever going to do. I was so worried about this in my first year that I then didn’t sign up to that much at all, and given that some things inevitably don’t fit with your timetable, it meant that I wasn’t involved with that many things at all. The societies I take part in and love now, including hiking, I didn’t discover until my final year, and by then there’s so much going on that they can take a back seat. So if I could go again, I would sign up for more things, go to tasters for everything and then eventually pick 2 or 3 to join fully. The first week should be really frantic and busy, so don’t panic about signing up to too much at the fair- nobody expects you to carry them all on!

2) Worried about work less

Of course, studying is important, it’s why you’re at uni after all. I’m not suggesting you doss throughout your first year and scramble for the 40% when final exams come round, but if you’re doing a fair amount of work and still don’t understand absolutely everything, don’t stress so much. It took me quite a while to adapt to the fact that you might not know what’s going on in every lecture until you look back at it a bit, and even there there will be gaps in understanding. I also had a lot of worries that I wasn’t good enough for the course and was going to fail horribly, but I can say now, don’t worry about this! Leicester wouldn’t have made you an offer if they didn’t think you were capable, and if you put the time and work in, the chances are you definitely are good enough!

3) Taken more Photographs

Ok, this one’s pretty small, but I was struggling to think, and a list of 2 isn’t really that much of a list. But it is really important to capture everything that goes on so you can print off some photos off your new friends for your bedroom wall, alongside the old ones I recommend everyone brings. Although you probably will find yourself tagged in loads of photos by the end of the first week, it’s still a good idea to take some of your own if you have a camera, so you can remember this time later and share pictures of your new friends with your family back home. (Mine loved to see these, it helped them to know I was settling in).

There we have it, I’m pretty happy with how my uni life has gone, so it’s not a long list, but next week I’ll be doing a list of my favourite things and moments from uni, and that could be quite significantly longer!